Fig. 1From: Recovery from critical illness-induced organ failure: the role of autophagyOverview of autophagy. Autophagy initiates with the formation of an isolation membrane (also called phagophore) in the cytoplasm. Isolation membranes elongate to finally form a double-membrane vesicle, the autophagosome. During the elongation process, intracellular cargo (e.g., damaged organelles, protein aggregates, invaded microorganisms) is recruited to the isolation membrane to be engulfed. After maturation of the autophagosome, the vesicle fuses with a lysosome, resulting in formation of an autolysosome, in which the sequestered content is degraded and thereafter recycled to the cytoplasm. The figure is original for this articleBack to article page